Parents pull children from Orkney school over phone mast fears

Parents pull pupils from Orkney school over phone mast fears

Two families on one of Orkney's north isles have refused to send their children to school because of a phone mast.

In a protest reminiscent of health scares in the 1990s, parents are worried pupils will be harmed by 5G technology installed at Stronsay's small primary.

Regulators insist the mast, part of an experiment to see if modern mobile telephony can be used for radio broadcasting, poses no danger to children or adults.

One couple withdrew their three children before the summer and a second family, of six, has decided not to send their youngsters to the school this term. Their children represent nearly a third of the 30-strong roll.

Father Duncan Bliss-Davis told BBC Scotland: "As a family we've discussed it many times.

"We think education is one of the most important things you can give children.

"So it's something we are not happy to have done and we're hoping that the trial is supposed to end at the end of September.

"If it does, then our children can go back to school."

The mast belongs to the BBC whose head of digital communications, Ian Walker, told parents the radio broadcasting system was based on technology already widely used and with the same radio frequencies as are used for household TVs.

Mr Walker added: "The trial is fully compliant with advice from Public Health England that any exposure to radio waves must comply with guidelines set out by the ICNIRP, an independent international commission recognised by World Health Organisation.

"Those guidelines recommend that exposure to radio waves should be below a certain power level - and the power levels we measured are a thousand times lower than that level."

Protests against telephone masts were common in the early years of mobiles - and right up to the early 2000s - amid unsubstantiated scare stories that radio waves could harm children. Studies have concluded there is no additional risk.

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